Department Store White Dress
by parismylove
Summary: "While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about." A story of young love and of a wedding. O/S Complete. E/B. Rated K.


**A o/s plot bunny came hopping past me today, and this was too cute not to adopt. I hope you love it. I do!**

**Rated K because it has nothing dirty in it at all. Can't believe I wrote this!**

* * *

**Department Store White Dress**

Early afternoon sun filtered through eyelet lace curtains, casting pinpricks of light and patches of shadow across layers of white tulle floating through the air of a bedroom. Crystals scattered throughout the translucent fabric reflected the light up onto the ceiling and down onto the floor and over to the awed face of a young girl in a white dress bought at the closest department store to where she lived.

"I want you to wear this. I wore it when I married your father."

The girl stood frozen in the mirror hung on the back of her door as her mother attached the fingertip veil to her mahogany hair, curled and pinned into place with the utmost of care.

"It's perfect, mommy," she whispered. And it was. She was just a girl in a dress before. Now she was a bride.

The mother looked down at the happy eyes of her only child and bent to kiss her forehead.

"I wish I had more to give you."

She wanted to buy her daughter the white dress on the mannequin that her fingers brushed over as she made her way to the clearance rack. She wanted to buy her the earrings she modeled in the mirror at the jewelry counter. She wanted to have more decorations than the pink roses from the garden and the white streamers from her last birthday. But she couldn't afford it. Money was always an obstacle.

"This was all that was missing," the girl smiled, twirling in the mirror, watching how the veil glittered.

Money may have always been an obstacle, but the girl never wanted more than what her mother could give her.

* * *

"Are you ready? They're ready!"

A man came bounding up the stairs in a slightly too tight black suit and shiny black shoes and came to a stop when he saw his daughter and his wife standing in the hallway together.

He hadn't really approved of this wedding at first. It seemed silly to him. His daughter was too young to want to do this. Hadn't he just held her tiny warm body in his arms? Hadn't she just taken her first wobbly steps? Hadn't she just said, "Dada"?

When he laid his eyes on her in that familiar veil he'd lifted from her mother's face, he realized he was mistaken. That was years ago, not the yesterday it felt like.

* * *

"Sure you don't want to back out? There's still time."

"Daddy, stop it. I want to marry him."

"You don't think you're too young?"

"I love him. It doesn't matter."

The father, standing much taller than his daughter, sighed. "Are you ready then?"

His foot went to take the first step out the back door onto the porch, and the girl tugged on him to hold him back.

"Do you think he'll think I'm pretty?" she whispered.

"Of course he will," he answered.

"Do _you_ think I'm pretty?" For some reason, this was more important to her.

He lifted her veil, an action that sent a pang to his chest, and traced his thumb across her right cheek as he gently kissed her left. "You're much more than pretty. You're more beautiful than I ever imagined you'd be. I'm so proud of you."

The young girl's face lit up with happiness behind her fixed veil, and she and her hero took their first careful step onto the porch.

* * *

In a tailored black suit, an expensive white tie and a pink rose boutonniere from the garden, a boy stood at the end of a green grass aisle fidgeting with the ring in his pocket. The mother of the boy sat directly in front of him with her camera and the father stood next to him with a book in his hand.

He'd dreamed of this day since he'd seen the girl through his bedroom window, riding by his house on her bike, pink ribbon in her hair and laugh in her smile. She was beautiful to him, the most perfect thing he'd ever seen. She always would be in his eyes.

He wanted to give the girl everything he owned. He had too much. It flowed out of his house onto the lawn, most of it going untouched and unused. He never wanted anything but her, but anything he got, even without asking.

Maybe now that they were getting married, the girl would finally take what the boy offered her.

* * *

A traditional wedding song played from the CD player resting at the feet of the bride's mother. The two of them had listened to it on repeat the night before while they practiced her hairdo. They'd found the CD in the clearance bin at the department store, not far from where they found the dress. One dollar for twelve songs was a deal. It would come in handy again some day possibly.

Next to her father, the girl marched slowly, in time with the song she now knew by heart. The boy she was marrying stood in front of her with his hands clasped together. He was handsome in his suit. He was always handsome. Innocent green eyes. Perfectly trimmed hair. Clothes bought in a store the girl had never even stepped foot into. She didn't think she deserved him.

He didn't think he deserved her.

* * *

The boy couldn't stop smiling. What a beautiful thing the girl was in front of him. He'd never seen her in a prettier dress, and he'd never seen her hair curled like it was. He was used to seeing it tangled down her back or flying in the wind as he chased after her, always giving her a head start and always running slower than he actually could. She was tiny, much shorter than he was. Just a couple inches over three feet, maybe close to three and a half with the veil.

She was average height for a six year old. The boy was above average height for a six year old. He was above average everything.

* * *

"Who gives this... young lady to this... young man in marriage," the boy's father spoke delightedly.

"Her mother and I do."

Small giggles escaped the mothers sitting in the patio furniture chairs covered in the curtains from the living room windows, and the boy turned to give them 'the look.' This was not the time for giggles. He was getting married. The mothers immediately stopped and held up their cameras to take more pictures.

The young boy's father continued once the other had taken his seat. "We are gathered here today to witness the union of our children Edward and Bella in marriage. In the two years that they have been neighbors, their friendship has grown into one of trust and reliance, and they have decided to live their lives as husband and wife."

Giggles once again rang from the audience, and Bella gave them 'the look' this time. Then she giggled herself. She was a little girl, after all. Then the man with the book spoke again, down to the two children no taller than his waist.

"I have a quote that you may not understand at your age, but some day you will. 'While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.' When you came to your mother and I last week, Edward, and said that you had asked Bella to marry you during recess and she had said yes, we both laughed. Not at you – never at you – but rather at ourselves. Here we thought we had so much to teach you about right and wrong and love and hate, but right under our noses, you learned it all yourself. When did you grow up? Where did you learn to love? How did you know what to do when you found that one person that you couldn't live without? You never cease to amaze us every day."

Edward and Bella smiled up at him, her hand in his. Neither child in the young couple knew what a joy they were to their parents. If they hadn't been, though, they might not be standing there together on such a beautiful day.

"With that," Edward's father continued with a hope in his heart, "I must be honest with you and tell you that the vows you are about to take will only be true in your hearts, but that's all that matters for now. Some day you may want to say these words again in front of every person that you love, so that they will hear them and know them to be everlasting."

Bella's tiny hand squeezed Edward's bigger hands, unsure of what he meant by that, and the vows began.

"Do you, Edward, take Bella to be your wife, promising to love her and cherish her as your best friend and soul mate?"

The boy looked up to him, forgetting his line. 'I do,' the father mouthed.

"I do," Edward said, fumbling with the tiny white gold ring in his sweaty fingers. It was warm in the sun. He didn't mean to get sweat on her pretty hands.

"Do you, Bella, take Edward to be your husband, promising to love him and cherish him as your best friend and soul mate?"

She shook her head. "Yes... I mean, I do."

A small velvet baggy hung from the pink rose bouquet she held in her hand. Inside was a small sterling silver ring she bought with her birthday money instead of the earrings she loved. It was in the clearance case, but it was all she could afford. She thought he deserved more.

He thought he was the luckiest boy in the world.

Sniffles joined the giggles in the crowd but neither the little girl nor the little boy gave 'the look.' They were too happy.

"By the power vested in me by your mothers, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride, Edward."

A blush pinker than the roses crept up on both of the two young spouses' cheeks. Kiss? They were supposed to kiss in front of their parents? They'd never kissed before.

Under the watchful eyes of their mothers and fathers and the madly clicking cameras they held, the boy slowly lifted the veil his beloved was wearing in front of her face and took a deep breath. Then he leaned in for a hug.

He'd kiss her tomorrow on the playground at school.

* * *

**Short and sweet. I couldn't get this out of my head, so I had to write it down. Hope you loved it! See you with the final epilogue of For You, Anything soon! Please be of suitable age to read this Rated M story.  
**


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